Beer Advice, Beer Reviews, and Random Beer Thoughts

This Time I Have Something That Resembles A Plan

Part of it was self-imposed and part of it was a distinct lack of sleep (I do have a day job), but I have taken over a week off from the blog. I feel bad not writing, but I used the time to asses and refine my goal for this space.

I have two primary goals with the changes I want to make. The first is to post a new review or other piece at least five days a week (I may never sleep). The second goal is to try to do something to enliven the beer review.

First, the Five Articles will be written every day, seven days a week. I want it to set the agenda for the day and get out a few quick hit thoughts. I just like reading about different aspects of the craft beer world. I do read every article that I link to plus at least another five that I don’t link. Reading all this stuff educates me and helps mold the perspective I want to achieve on the website.

Second, I want to write more Beer Counselor pieces. Maybe change the name or do more then one type of column/blog pieces. I have thoughts on how I see the beer business from the perspective of someone who works in the retail portion of the business (and by business I mean the industry) and not for a brewer or as a distributor. I want to put those thoughts out there for agreement and derision. Not only do I want to write more of these pieces I want to have fun with it. I don’t want a set structure. I want to experiment and take chances with what shows up in this part of the site.

Finally and maybe most importantly, I want to concentrate more on the reviews. I want to try and figure out a way to do them differently. I want to do reviews in a way that entertains me and is slightly different than anyone else’s perspective. I am trying to make it more narrative in structure. I have a couple of other ideas I will work into the reviews beginning next week.

Actual reviews of the beer are not hard to write. If you have any tasting experience and ability to express what you taste in complete sentences, you can write a review. In fact, the actual review of a beer should not take up more than 200 words. How it looks, smells, and tastes is not that difficult to describe. The best reviewers and reviews give you more than that. They tell a story or evoke a place or time in your mind. I want to write reviews that have a narrative structure and a little added value (I am going to hold off on letting you know what my planned added value is until the first review of next week). These first reviews will be rough as I circle around what I’m trying to get at in the writing.

Here is the new plan:

The Five Articles – Every Day

Beer Counselor (or some other bloggy piece) – 2 or 3 times a week

Beer Reviews – 3 or 4 times a week

That means you will be getting at least 500 words of new content a day (just what the internet needs more noise) 5 days a week not counting the Five Articles. The more I think about it, the less sleep I see in my future.